LabourNationalise - sugar, cement and steel
Full employmentMaintain welfare state

ConservativesEnd to further nationalisation
Full employmentMaintain welfare state

With nationalisation the key issue, voters divided on class lines much more clearly than in 1945. Taking a view from the side of the campaign, the Liberals said the election was a "class struggle".

In Labour’s manifesto - Let Us Win Through Together - Attlee promised to nationalise steel, cement and sugar despite the poor state of the economy and the poor returns from the nationalisations already carried out.

Sterling had been devalued in the previous year, highlighting the country’s fragile state, while many key Labour figures were against taking their case to the public in the first winter election for decades.

But the party stuck to its task, making the case for taking cement and sugar into the public fold, saying they were private monopolies. Sugar company Tate & Lyle launched a fierce fightback - with cartoon character Mr Cube taking on the government from the cover of sugar packets across the nation.

Setting out their stall in their manifesto, This is the Road, the Conservatives entered into a consensus with Labour over health and welfare. But they were staunch in their opposition to further nationalisation.